Otto Hutt

Founded 1920 · Pforzheim, Germany · Karl Hutt

Otto Hutt is the quiet one of the nine: no scandalous limited editions, no campaigns, only silver, geometry and Bauhaus. It sits in Pforzheim, Germany's jewellery city, and does everything there, down to the electroplating and the polishing.

History

Karl Hutt opened the workshop in Pforzheim in 1920, and within the first year had twenty employees. He did not start with pens: he made smoking accessories, toothpicks and shaving sets in silver, and moved from there to writing instruments. He was a convinced follower of the Bauhaus, and that grammar — form follows function, zero ornament — is still the house's a century later. In the sixties the business passed to his son Otto, whose name the brand carries. Today the factory occupies larger premises in the same city, with more than seventy employees, and distributes in some twenty countries.

Iconic models

Design 06
A straight-lined body with machine-engraved surfaces; the house's most recognisable format.
Design 07
A slim silhouette in 925 sterling silver, with guilloché finishes.
Design 04
The brand's entry, in lacquered brass, with the same geometry as the top lines.
Design 08
The most contemporary proposal, with a faceted body and matte-polished contrasts.

Worth knowing

The brand does not carry its founder's name. Karl Hutt opened the house in 1920; Otto was his son, who inherited it in the sixties, and it is his name that stayed on the caps.